Teachers be warned: schools under the Tories will become the status symbol du jour. And you thought being bullied by Ed Balls was bad.

Report card

Sharpest cut Schemes to combat knife crime, launched by Gordon Brown a couple of years ago, have made quite an impact among young people in Manchester. But, starved of funds, they're facing closure

Challenging schools In the wake of the Peter Harvey case, we look at how teachers cope with difficult classes

Cumbria's crisis How it feels to be trying to get some work done at a university caught up in a financial nightmare

Election special

Voters' minds LSE researcher Michael Bruter gets to grips with all the factors that influence where we place our cross

Photograph: Gideon Mendel/Corbis Gideon Mendel/Gideon Mendel/Corbis

Steve Smith Two days to go, and still no one is talking to the universities

Peter Mortimore If only the parties would adopt my wishlist…

On the margins

The mathematics of the mystical, the magic of the numerical. Ommmmmm. Two Indian scientists are dissecting the properties of the divine sound. Ommmmmm. The cycle, the vibrations, the pulse and the power. Ommmmmm. Blimey, I feel better already.

What you said

We ran a story about Fitfinder, an online flirting service for students in university libraries, who've been posting things like: "Male, brunette. Curly, waistcoat, bit of a Tory, he's gawwwwgeous!"

Photograph: Jose Luis Pelaez /Getty Images

Nordelius nordelius had an excellent idea:

Could we do this on CiF?
"Fitty, bald head not connected to body, standing next to something grey. You slagged off Gordon Brown and indicated you'd be voting conservative..."

Quote of the week

"This isn't just an economic thing – it's not just people who come from poor backgrounds, it's across the whole of society. You get a lot of children coming from very privileged backgrounds who've spent a lot of time in front of the TV and not enough time snuggled up with a good book. The TV does the imagining for you – and it doesn't care whether you're listening or not."

Stories of the day

Sank 'eavens for leetle Will Mr Self comes over all Maurice Chevalier in his mission to learn French in time for his Paris book launch

Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar

Statistics, lies and dental health Jonathan Wolff ponders a new study that claims British children have the most marvellous teeth